Optical communication systems employ various photonic devices, such as photodetectors and optical modulators, for accomplishing a variety of processing tasks. Typically, these devices are separately packaged for integration into the optical communication system.
The photonics package typically includes, in addition to the photonics device, an optical fiber, a container in which the package resides, and an electrical header among other ancillary parts. The cost of such photonics packages is typically controlled, especially at high production volumes, by items other than the photonics device. For example, at high production volumes, the cost of some photodetector packages and optical modulator packages is dominated by the cost of the optical fiber included in such packages.
As such, it would be desirable to combine a number of photonic devices in a single package in order to reduce the dominant cost associated with interfacing multiple optical fibers to a number of devices and to reduce the cost of the photonic devices. This can be accomplished by integrating the photonic devices, as much as feasible, on a single photonic integrated circuit.